As long as the industry keeps coming up with new “standards”, Abbey Bike Tools will keep making better tools to work on them. But not all of their tools are specifically built for just one standard – some like the new Micro Bearing Press are meant for a number of purposes. Namely, any bearing with an innder diameter of 13mm or less.
Bigger bearings (those with an ID of 15mm or more) can be installed with their larger Modular Bearing Press. But for the small guys, the Micro is just what the bike doctor ordered. Like the big press, the tool uses a ball thrust bearing which reduces the effort needed to install the hub bearings. Sold without handles, the press can be turned by hand – though if you need extra leverage you can use an allen key in the top. The production version will have labeled drifts and all the parts will be anodized for a Abbey-worthy tool.
On the subject of drifts, Abbey will have SRAM DUB drifts available for their big press since the DUB bottom brackets have an o-ring seal that will be damaged by a drift without a taper.
Behind these intricately machined Abbey “building blocks” are some of the new Oversized BB sockets which are now finished and shipping for $50. Among the ridiculous list of new BB standards are tools for Praxis, e*13, Hope, Chris King, TorqTite, and Colnago – and yes, every one of those is a different tool. To help with the confusion, Abbey has a convenient chart on their site which lists the dimensions and number of notches for each tool so you can figure out what you need. As usual, Abbey goes the extra distance on the Colnago and TorqTite tools with a threaded boss so you can bolt the tool in place since the BB/tool interface is very thin.
Finally, after the year exclusive with RockShox, Abbey now has more sizes of their suspension seal press driver for Fox suspension. In addition to the RockShox sizes, you’ll now find 32, 34, and 36mm presses as well.
